Chapter 10
Reagan was seeing his last patient of the day when he realized that he was supposed to have dinner with his parents tonight.
Sometimes they would call one of them up and have them over for dinner.
Tonight was his turn, and he thought that he was looking forward to it, but now he wasn’t.
It had been a long day, and he wasn’t up to making small talk tonight.
He would have called to cancel, but he knew that they would be disappointed that he couldn’t make it, and that would hurt his heart.
He loved his parents very much and never wanted them to be disappointed in him.
“Mrs. Runion, how are you feeling today?” She told him of her aches and pains, and he, laughing, told her that for her age, she should expect a few of those.
She would be ninety-three on her next birthday.
She made him wish that all his patients were like her in getting around.
But she drank bourbon once a day and swore that was what was keeping her young.
“Let me get with your chart here and see what this visit is about.”
“I have a cold. I’ve had one before, but I can’t seem to shake this one.
Do you suppose it’s pneumonia? It wouldn’t surprise me to no end that I’d get this late in my life.
That sort of stuff kills you if you’re not careful.
” He listened to her lungs and found them to be fairly clear.
“That’s good to know. I’ve been worrying over some details of my going home stuff and didn’t want to do that until I have all my ducks in a row.
You’d better have yours all set up, too.
You just never know when you’re going to go and see your maker. ”
“I know, and I do. I have everything going to my parents in the event that I die before they do.” He thought this was a morbid conversation and decided to change the subject.
“How are you resting? Sleeping any better since the last time I saw you? I know you said you weren’t getting enough rest and had to nap during the day.
I need a nap sometimes too and highly recommend them to everyone.
” She laughed, and he smiled with her. She would laugh like a braying jackass when something tickled her, and he enjoyed that about her, too.
When she laughed like she did, you knew that she was enjoying a good story or a joke.
“I got me a place all planned out where I nap. It’s right there on my sunporch with the sun coming in on me.
There’s a nice fan too that I have blowing on me.
Might be where I got this cold, but I’m not too worried about it.
You’ll fix me right up.” He said he’d do his best, and she patted him on the cheek.
“You’re a good boy, Reagan. I ain’t never had me a doctor like you before.
You take good care of me, and you never make me feel like I’m wasting your time either.
As I said, you’re a good boy. Your parents did right by you, and you should tell them that all the time. ”
“I tell them I love them at least twice a day when I see them. I’m having dinner with them tonight, as a matter of fact.
” She asked him why he was wasting time on her when he could be with his mom and pop.
“They know that I have to work. And I think following in my dad’s footsteps has made him proud of me more. ”
“Well, of course you did. There ain’t nothing better than a doctor in the family either.
I’m betting right now he’s as proud of you as he is of that new granddaughter of his.
She’s a mighty cute little thing. Knows her manners too.
” He said that he loved her too. “I’m betting you all do.
She’ll bring more love into that family than you ever thought possible.
Children do that. Not mine, but I don’t want to talk about them today.
Pissed me off something terrible. They want to put me in a nursing home, so I’m not all by myself all the time.
That’s another reason that I’ve lived so long, I’m not having to deal with them anymore.
Kids can be a wonderful thing, but they can also be a pain in the backside. ” He laughed with her again.
After giving her a prescription for some cold medicine, he saw her out.
His dad would be happy to know that she was still getting around so good.
He thought that she had been one of his first patients when he started out his practice.
He’d been taking more and more of his dad’s patients over the last few months.
Dad and Mom wanted to travel now that they were all out of the house, and he couldn’t wait for them to get going.
Closing up the clinic, he drove himself home.
After a quick change, he was on his way to his parents’ house, feeling better about the visit all the time.
He knew, too, that Mac and Aaron would be around and thought that he’d enjoy seeing them as well.
He loved his family and loved to be around them as much as he could.
Dinner was good, as usual. They had pork chops on the grill, his favorite thing to have with mashed potatoes and gravy.
For dessert, there were pies. Since he knew that he’d be taking some home with him, he only ate one slice of pie from each of the three offered and had a good laugh with his mom.
She didn’t bake well, so she left that up to the cook, but today she had supervised, she told him.
After telling his dad about Mrs. Runion, they sat around the living room and talked about how old she was when she first came to him as a patient. It was hard to believe that she’d been anything but old to him, but Dad told him that at one time she had been the belle of the ball to some people.
“Her family isn’t much to talk about. They’ve never given her much of her due when it came to her health.
But now that they want to put her into a nursing home, she might have to knock a few heads around.
Like her husband before her, she wants to die at home and not have to have the fuss of the hospital.
I believe she’s going to do what she wants and damn her kids.
” Mom said that she used to come in with her kids and keep them in line with just a look.
Dad agreed with a laugh. “She would only have to give them a look, and they knew that they were going to get it when they got home. I’m betting that she never once hesitated to give them a swat to the bottom when they needed it, no matter if they were in public or not. ”
“She puts me on notice sometimes, too, when I’m seeing her.
If she doesn’t agree with whatever I’ve told her, I know she’s going to do as she wants when she gets home.
” Dad told him that was more than likely right.
“I’m going to miss her when she goes. I don’t think it’s going to be for a while yet, but I will miss her. ”
“I will too. Even now, when I see her around town, I wonder what her secret to living so long is. She gets around better than most fifty-year-olds I know.” Reagan agreed with his dad, bringing up a couple of patients who were just like he said.
“They get old before their time, and it shows on them. I think people realize that they’re in their sixties and just give up.
I’m just getting to the good part of my life right now and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Your mom and I are going to go see the world once I’ve given you the last of my people, and there will be no turning back the clock for us.
We’re going to live each day like it’s our last.”
“Like grandma and grandpa.” They were good examples of people not giving up because they hit a mark in their lives that had them giving up.
“Sometimes I find myself a little sore because I moved something that I should have had help with, and I think of grandda. He’s still out there working on things like he’s got all the time in the world.
Sometimes, like me, he should ask for help, but Aaron is around to get him out of fixes. ”
“He does at that. Aaron spends more time out there refixing things that dad had gotten into his head would work better than he does just visiting them.” Dad laughed.
“I swear to you, he didn’t tinker with things like he does now.
I think he does it to get Aaron out there to help him out.
Aaron thinks so, too. But they get along in their little plays, and that’s all that matters. ”
They spoke about how Harri had spent the night with them and how much fun they had.
Grandda had made little Harri a rocking chair so that she’d have one, and he said he was making more of them before his time was up.
None of them wanted to talk about that, but they all appreciated that he was thinking ahead.
“She sure did like that gift. She told me that she didn’t have any grandparents who wanted to have anything to do with her.
I hadn’t realized until I spoke to Anna that her husband had killed himself before she was born.
And that his parents blamed it on her. I don’t know why, but I assumed that he’d been there for the two of them after the little one had been born.
” Reagan said that according to Zeno, she’d not even known she was pregnant when he died.
“I didn’t know that either. Poor little family.
I’m so glad that they’re a part of ours now.
Do you suppose they’ll ever want to have anything to do with that little girl?
I can’t imagine doing that if one of you boys died.
I’d want to be a part of her life even more so. ”
He didn’t want to talk about dying anymore and said as much.
His mom said he was right; there had to be better topics than death to talk about.
Dad said that he wanted them to know that they’d had everything taken care of in the event something happened to them, then he changed the subject to the fall season.